Best Kept Secret
by Heuvel
Summary: Harry's first auror assingment under the reign of Kingsley as minister is to track down an unregistered witch by the name of Melrose Sherwood. It was supposed to be simple, too. Harry/OC. After DH.
1. Chapter 1

"What?" Harry yelled at Kingsley, while his auror team, Ron, Lupin, Sirius and Tonks, stood behind him, listening to the conversation between the new Minister for Magic, Kingsley, and the auror, Harry. "But how can that be? She's not even in the records!"

"I know." Kingsley said patiently, his voice low and cool and somewhat comforting for the disheveled Potter, "It's surprising we missed her. She didn't get a letter from Hogwarts…Her name has never come up."

Harry was pacing back and forth in Kingsley office, agitated. It didn't bother him that there was an unregistered witch in the mist of London. That, he thought, wasn't news. There had been plenty of unregistered around him; one particular animagus stood behind him chuckling. "Harry, you've dealt with worse."

Harry smiled and turned on his godfather, "Yeah, I know. It's stressful, though."

"I would expect so." Lupin agreed, "Someone with a different type of a magic, different skills, different, well, everything, and completely uneducated? Dangerous, I would expect. Very dangerous."

"For all we know, she could be doing Dark Magic or voodoo or something. She could have been spending her entire life harming muggles for all we know. She could be worse than-"

"Nothing could be worse than Voldemort, mate." Ron said.

"We should always prepare for the worse, Ronald." Kingsley said wisely, "Treat this assignment with caution, Potter. I expect that the people behind you will be your team? And where is young Mrs. Weasley?" He looked over to Ron.

"Home. With mum. She's getting bigger and doesn't much like seeing me anymore." Ron said sheepishly, smiling over at Lupin who smiled kindly with pity, and Sirius, who barked out a sharp laugh. "I'd stay home with her but…"

Harry cut him off sharply, "So, it'll be Sirius, Remus, Ron and me." He said finally. Tonks tuffed behind him, to which he turned and said, "I'm sorry, Tonks, but…Well Lupin said…"

"I thought it would be best for you to stay home with Ted." Remus said, "Since he's sick, and all." And though she looked reluctant and resentful, Tonks nodded at her husband. She was a mother now, Harry knew. She had more important responsibilities than running around doing auror work. He had often asked Lupin when she would retire, but he said she'd die first. The only thing Harry could do was push her to do more motherly work.

The second reason why he cut Ron off was because he didn't like him talking about his marriage to Hermione. He loved both of them; they were the best siblings he was never given when he was a young boy. But since Ginny's death in the Battle of Hogwarts and their marriage, the pain of realizing that he was utterly and romantically alone seemed to press upon Harry more and more as of recent. Even Sirius, who had been in hiding up until about a year ago, had a lady that he had been seeing. It seemed to Harry that he was the only one other than Hagrid that didn't have someone special. Even Draco, who worked for the Department of International Magical Cooperation as an ambassador for Britain, had a wife. Harry had no one.

He always knew that he was missing out. Ron and Hermione sharing loving looks to each other from across the room, Lupin and Tonks teaching Ted how to walk, Sirius blushing whenever someone talked about his little lady. This was why Harry had buried himself in his work, striving to make the auror office the best it had ever been. Kingsley said that Harry could be Head of Auror office by the time he was 30; Harry often disagreed.

"Can I have her file then?" Harry asked. And Kinsley reached into the drawer of the desk to pull out a remarkably thin file and passed it to Harry. Opening it, he read:

_**Melrose Jane Sherwood Age 20**_  
_Muggle-born (?)_  
_Works as a reporter for London newspaper_  
_Unmarried, living alone._  
_Unknown abilities; heritage._  
_Education unknown (Possibly muggle-schooling)_

"Alright." Harry said as he looked at the file, there wasn't even a picture next to the description. He looked up and at the men before him; Tonks had left. "We'll start tracking her tomorrow. Do you have her address, Kingsley? Thanks."

"She goes to work at eight in the morning every day, stops to get coffee at the café just at the end of her street, and walks to Kings Cross to take the train to her work. She get's off work at about five in the evening, if she doesn't have a large piece to write, and spends most of her nights alone. There is no record of her going on dates, but she's gone out with friends. We only know that she has long strawberry blonde hair, that was described by Tonks."

"Great. Thanks. We'll take notes." And Harry nodded to his team and led the way out of the office. Walking briskly, Ron and the others fell into step with him.

"Nervous?" Ron asked.

Harry continued walking. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Harry, of all the people who know you." Sirius started, "We know you're nervous. You always get really serious when you're nervous."

"Well. Better than jittery, I suppose." Harry said sternly.

"You'll do fine." Lupin assured, "Kingsley didn't give you a difficult first assignment. It'll be nice getting out of the office and not doing paperwork for the other aurors, I expect?"

Harry smiled at Lupin, "Yeah..It'll be great."

"So." Ron said, "The plan?"

"Simple." Harry said, smiling, "We'll meet in London tomorrow and stake out her house. Follow her to work too. See who she is and if we see her do magic. The second we see her do a spell, we'll trap her and invite her to speak to Kingsley."

"Straight to the point. That's my boy." Sirius said proudly.

"I'll see you tomorrow then." Ron said, "I gotta get home. Hermione insists I bring ice cream with me. Does anyone know how to get that stuff?"

"Just outside of Kings Cross." Lupin said, amusement in his voice, "I'll take you. Come on. See you tomorrow, Harry! Sirius!" And the two of them left.

"Harry!" Sirius said happily, wrapping a strong arm around his godson's shoulders and shaking him happily, "You're first assignment!"

Harry smiled, "I know…"

"We'll celebrate tonight!" Sirius continued, "We'll have Kreacher make a big dinner! Chicken and kidney soup? Yes? Good choice!"

Harry laughed. For the past two years since the fall of Voldemort, Harry had been living with Sirius and Kreacher. He and Molly had gone through the entire house for the third time to completely clean it, this time with the help of the much kinder Kreacher. Harry loved living with his godfather. Sirius was kind to him, happy to see him in the morning, and even more happy about considering Harry as a friend and drinking buddy. Harry loved having that father figure, that man in his life he had been missing, that family member he so craved. But recently, with the appearance of Sirius' lady, Sirius had been spending a lot of his time in his room with her. And Harry understood. He just wished he had someone to spend a lot of time in his room with as well.

"Stop zoning out, Harry." Came Sirius' voice from far away in Harry's brain, and which Harry had to shake his head to remember who said it. "You'll be fine tomorrow. Come on! We have to cross the street like a muggle!"

Tomorrow Harry would finally commence his first auror assignment that helped determine the fate of a certain aspect of the magical community. For the past couple of years, Harry had been frustrated about his time in the auror office. After defeating the most dangerous wizard of all existence, he thought he would be able to do something more interesting than just paperwork. But Kingsley had stressed to Harry and Ron that they had to start at the bottom just like everyone else, or they wouldn't appreciate being at the top. It was people like Volemort who never worked for their power, but stole it, and didn't deserve it. Kingsley wanted to make sure that Harry and Ron were humbled in their jobs, and they were, and Harry knew he was right. But that didn't defeat the fact that he was bloody bored.

Walking home with Sirius, he had his chicken and kidney soup and was promptly sent to bed by his godfather, to await, and not sleep, for the events that would unfold the following day. His first auror assignment, tracking an unknown magical woman two years his youth, with his family, Ron, Lupin and Sirius. Excitement and nerves pumped through Harry as he slowly drifted off to sleep. Dreaming dreams of his future, and the day ahead.

The next morning, Harry was woken by Kreacher, who had wondered into his room to leave Harry's breakfast on the bedside table. Old, the house-elf was, but not undetermined. Since the fall of Voldemort and Harry giving Kreacher R.A.B.'s locket, the elf had been making sure to keep Harry and Sirius very healthy, and in turn, he was treated better by both wizards. At the moment, Kreacher was placing Harry's coffee on the tray and said, "Master, Kreacher has brought your breakfast…"

"Thank you Kreacher."

"Kreacher will press your muggle clothing now, master." Said the house-elf, bowering low to the ground so that his nose pressed the floor gently, and waddling out of the room. Harry jumped up from where he was laying, shoved the toast into his mouth, and started to undress to shower.

The morning itself was long. Being woken up promptly at six in the morning by Kreacher, taking a cold shower because Sirius had taken the hot shower, and all the while shoving morsels into his mouth when he passed his room, Harry was already stressed. Stopping in front of the mirror in his room, he attempted to straighten his hair. It wouldn't. It never actually complied. Harry couldn't think of one time in his life when his hair actually did what he wanted.

He dressed into the muggle clothes that Kreacher had pressed for him and waited in the kitchen for Sirius. His godfather had muggle clothing on as well, though unlike Harry, who was a natural, Sirius looked a little like the "crazy uncle" than a highly sophisticated and dangerous wizard. Harry didn't warn him.

They met Lupin and Ron at Kings Cross station to walk together to Melrose's address. She didn't live far from Harry and Sirius, Harry noted, and Sirius found that interesting as well. In fact, she lived only a block away, in an old apartment building. "Well, she'll be easy to spot." Sirius said, "Only old people and families live there. Spotting a young woman shouldn't be too hard…"

Harry was staring down at the address before him, on a small piece of purple paper that Kinsley had sent through the Ministry the day before. He was walking in front of the group, to the old apartment building Sirius was speaking of, but somewhat zoning them out. He was trying to think of possible situations his team could get in to. Melrose could be, for all he knew, malicious just like Voldemort, and was raised by a very Dark family that avoided Hogwarts so that they could corrupt their child privately. She could attack them once she sees them, bring notice to the fact that they're magical, or worse of all, even harm an innocent muggle. Sirius and Ron may think this assignment was 'fun', but Harry needed to take it seriously. Anything could happen.

Arriving in front of the apartment building, Harry took his seat on the bench just outside and waited for his team to split up. They had agreed that it would be too obvious for a group of men to wait outside the apartment building and watch a woman exit, so Harry took the bench next to Ron, Sirius sat across the street at another bench just kiddy-corner from Harry and Ron, and Lupin was to be at the end of the street, getting a coffee at the very café Melrose was said to get her own coffee.

Harry leaned back on the bench and looked at the watch Molly got him for his seventeenth birthday. It was 7:50. "Ten minutes." He mumbled to Ron.

Harry leaned back on the bench and looked at the watch Molly got him for his seventeenth birthday. It was 7:50. "Ten minutes." He mumbled to Ron.

"Mmmhmm.." Ron said sternly, watching the door of the apartment door intently while adding, "Hermione asked how you were doing last night. She said I got the wrong ice cream flavor too. She wanted vanilla and Lupin said I should get chocolate…" Harry snorted, but Ron said, "She's worried about you, you know."

"Excuse me?" Harry asked, but he, like Ron, never took his eye off of what was in front of him. The apartment building, and Sirius, apparently reading a newspaper right next to the stoop where Melrose would descend, "She's worried?"

"She says she feels you think you're alone." Ron said cautiously, "She's worried you'll never get over-"

"Are you over it, Ron?" Harry snapped, still looking forward.

"Well, of course not, she was my own sister-"

"Then do you expect me to be over it?"

"I know, mate, but it's been two years, you know? Hermione thinks that maybe you should start looking-"

"Shut up, Ron."

"Look, mate, I'm not looking for a fight!" And Ron broke his concentration on Melrose's apartment to look at his best friend, who didn't look back at him.

"No, I mean, shut up. It's 7:58." Harry said calmly. The subject was dropped.

Ron looked back at the building, and out of the corner of Harry's eye, he saw Ron's jaw drop. Sirius, who was peeking over his newspaper, looked over at the shocked Harry and made a face that both worried and amused Harry. This was all because of the strawberry haired woman who had just closed the apartment door behind her, flipped her hair over her shoulder, and looked around briefly, seeming to take in the air around her. She was wearing a pencil skirt that made it so Harry couldn't miss her curves, an office shirt that was loose enough for her stomach, but not her breasts, and a blazer hung over her shoulder by her slender hand. She had a briefcase in her other hand, which she gripped loosely like an accessory instead of something for work. Walking down the stairs, Harry noticed that she was wearing earphones in her ears, and thus wouldn't be able to hear anything around them but her music. She had high cheekbones, that were rosy, and pout lips that were tight over her jaw at the moment. She walked down the small staircase, smiled politely at Sirius, and placed a pair of sunglasses upon her eyes, before strutting down the sidewalk before her, kicking her feet in front of her and popping her hips while she did so, in a way that Harry knew she was moving to the beat of the music. Once she had passed and he was sure that she wouldn't see him, Sirius looked over at Harry and Ron, his eyebrows raised and his mouth open to say, "WOW!" silently.

Lupin was more amusing, Harry gathered. He had been receiving his coffee from the barista when Melrose approached the little café stand, held out her hand promptly, and took a small coffee that had been made before she even turned the corner. Then, saying a quick "Thank you!" she carried on, the same strut, her sunglasses hiding her true expression. Lupin had a face of complete shock and concern on his face, his hand had gone limp that held the coffee, and it spilled over his forearm, causing him to hiss loudly. The barista only chuckled and said, "Don't worry. That happens a lot when she's around." And Lupin politely dismissed himself to meet Harry, Ron and Sirius on the other side of the road, to tail Melrose to Kings Cross station.

"Bloody hell!" Ron said quietly to his teammates, "She's like Fleur!"

"A bit spicier than Fleur, I would argue." Lupin said, rubbing his burned arm. Sirius was laughing at him loudly. "Shut up!"

"What'll Tonks say?" Sirius said loudly.

"I didn't drop this because of her beauty!" Lupin said, "I was shocked by how she acted. Like a pure-blood!"

"Veela?" Ron asked Harry.

"Possibly." Harry mumbled, "But she'd be on record if she was. I think she's muggleborn."

They continued to follow Melrose, who seemed to cause the same reaction with other men as she did with the four who were trailing her. They opened doors for her, scuttled out of her way when she went by, and often stopped to gawk at her with their friends. She was a show stopper, Harry thought, that was sure.

Once to Kings Cross, she passed through the ticket booth in the same way she got her coffee, and Harry noted that over the years of her routine, she had built a strong rapport with the people she met every single day. "One of routine." Lupin said in his ear, and he nodded.

"No magic yet." Sirius whispered to Harry's ear while they were sitting in the same train carriage as Melrose, watching her out of the corner of their eyes and peeking over their newspapers. And Harry shook his head.

They didn't experience her do any magic that day. Or the day after. Or the day after that. But every single day, Harry, Ron, Lupin and Sirius all trailed behind her on her way to work and followed her home, which was just as boring. When she got home in the evening, she would retreat into her apartment and just not come out.

It was not until nearly a week after their stakeout, in which Harry was sitting on the same bench with Ron, that they noticed something different. A Saturday morning now, they watched her open the door of the apartment building in an oversized teeshirt and shorts, holding what looked like a laundry basket. "Ah." Ron said, "She _can_ dress like she's not Minister for Magic…"

"Follow her." Harry mouthed to Sirius, and his godfather immediately dropped his paper and tailed her.

They found themselves walking nonchalantly into a soggy laundry mat, where they saw Melrose putting clothes into the washer and sticking tokens into the washer, making the entire thing vibrate to life. The woman next to Melrose was about to do the same thing, but realized that she was without tokens. The woman scoffed loudly and smiled at Melrose apolitically, saying, "I've forgotten to buy tokens this week. What a day, huh?" And she started to take out her clothes, obviously intending to do them another day.

Melrose, however, turned around and placed a token on the top of the table that was provided for clothing. Pointing her finger at it, Harry watched as something gold gently flashed out of her finger, and a duplicate was made. Smiling, Melrose picked it up and held it to the woman, "Borrow one of mine. I accidentally bought more than I needed this week." And she placed a second token into the woman's hand, "For drying." The woman smiled happily and shoved the token in, thanking Melrose profusely, and starting up the washer.

"Now." Harry mouthed to Sirius, and his godfather took out his wand and silently stunned the woman. When the woman started to fall, Sirius flicked his wand again, and she started floating away to where Lupin was. Lupin placed the body safely on the floor and stood up. Doing all this time, Melrose was picking out how she wanted her clothes done, and didn't notice the silent commands that were made by the wizards. Harry went over to the door of the mat and locked it, while Ron lowered the blinds so that no one could see inside. Looking around, Harry saw that no one was in the building, so he said, "That was a nice thing for you to do."

Melrose had turned around to curiously watch Ron lower the blinds to notice Sirius and Lupin disposing of the body. At being addressed by Harry, she said nonchalantly, "Well, I had no use for extra tokens."

"You mean copies?" Harry asked sternly, "Magically made tokens?" Melrose didn't move, she only narrowed her eyes at Harry. She didn't say anything either, but flicked her eyes back and forth between Harry, Sirius, Ron and Lupin. Harry continued, "We're not going to hurt you." He said, "We just want to ask you some questions, Melrose."

"You know my name." She said quickly, glaring at Harry, "You've been following me all week."

"You don't know that for sure." Harry said.

Melrose glanced at Lupin, "I've never seen him before this week. And I've been seeing you outside my house, at Kings Cross, and outside my work as well." She looked at Sirius, "And he's not wearing normal clothing…"

Harry sighed. He already had failed his first assignment. He and the others had been too obvious. He looked over at Lupin and Sirius, but both were smiling at him encouragingly. Apparently, the fact that they had given themselves away wasn't a hindrance. Harry would be writing it down in the notes to Kingsley, though. Looking at Melrose again, he said calmly, "We're wizards." He started, "We're from the British Ministry of Magic-"

"Stop right there." Said Melrose, "The organization that has an entrance in those underground bathrooms?"

"Yeah…" Harry breathed, "You know about them?"

"I'm not interested." She said finally, opening the washer to take out her clothes.

"…What?" That was Ron, his mouth gaping open at her blunt remark.

"Whatever you people want." She said bitterly as she slammed her wet clothing into her basket, "I want no part of it." And she put the basket against her hip, looking at Harry once more.

"You're not in our records…" Harry started.

"No, I would hope not." She said sternly. "When I got my letter from Hogwarts, I made sure I wouldn't be in your Ministry records."

"But..you didn't get a letter from Hogwarts!" Harry raised his voice.

"As far as _you_ know." Melrose said.

"Our Minister wants to see you." Harry said, trying to get his message out before she interuppted him once again, "Just to see you! Just to see who you are! That's all we're doing here. You don't have to do anything for us, but just meet with Minister Kingsley…" Harry reached into his coat and took out a piece of paper, written upon it with Kingsley's handwriting, "…instructions on how to get to his office."

Melrose yanked the paper from Harry's hand and looked at it. Her face was stern and Harry was sure she didn't like the idea of this at all. He continued, "You can visit him any time. We were just conveying a message." Melrose didn't say anything in reply, but blinked down at the paper. Harry added, "And…we suggest you not do magic that close to muggles…"

"Muggles?" Melrose asked suddenly, looking up at Harry.

"Nonmagical people." Harry explained, "They might..see you. And since you're not registered, we can't be notified by a breach in the muggle regulation."

Melrose was staring at him, her lips tight, her eyes sharp. "Visit your Minister?"

"It would be nice.." Harry said, "So we know who you are. You won't get in trouble; you're of age anyway."

"I'll see when I'm free." She said finally, and hugged the basket closer to her, "Now, if you'll excuse me…" And with that, the same golden substance that had come out of her finger a few minutes before surrounded her body, and she was gone.

* * *

Just a new idea. Obviously, it's with an OC. I really seem to like to write with OC's. If you've been reading Summers with Sophie, than you'll notice that in that story, I took the type of magic that Kiki uses in Kiki's Delivery Service for the character. Well, I decided I would use another type of magic: The magic that is used in Sabrina the Teenaged Witch. Using one's finger instead of a wand to cast spells, basically. Wandless magic. So this is a new story with Melrose. Hope you liked the first chapter! 4,000 words! And to think, only a couple months ago, I would write chapters with only about 800 words. Crazy! Review please!


	2. Chapter 2

Harry had never been more frustrated than he had been the days following the Saturday after meeting Melrose. Each day, he and the others would stake out her house, and each day, she would ignore them. Kingsley had suggested not approaching her until she approached him; for conciliatory purposes. So Harry had been, what he felt, wasting his time on a case that would never be taken care of. At least, not while he was auror.

But that wasn't what frustrated him the most. Sure, the fact that he was failing his first task as an auror did bother him, but it didn't consume him as much as the records. After finding out that Melrose most certainly did get a letter from Hogwarts, Harry demanded to go back to Hogwarts and look through the records. McGonagall had had him over for tea while she went to fetch a large box with the records of each student that a letter was sent to.

"Two years after you…" McGonagall mumbled, "So…1994..." And she placed the box in front of him.

Most of the students were Slytherin. He remembered there being a great influx of Slytherin students during his years at Hogwarts, for reasons he didn't bother to understand. But he flipped through each file, and found nothing remotely close to Melrose Sherwood. "Professor…" Harry said, glaring down at the large pile, "Do you have the list of students you contacted with a Hogwarts letter?"

"In the back." McGonagall said.

Harry pulled out the list and went straight to the S's. Nothing.

"Do you have a list of students who didn't answer their Hogwarts letters?"

"No, Potter, we don't."

Harry sighed and flipped through the files once again. It angered him to know that he couldn't pinpoint who Melrose was or where she came from. For all he knew, she could be something very dangerous.

That night, a beautiful crisp Saturday night, Harry staked out Melrose's house for the 8th time with Ron, Sirius and Lupin.

"This is the last time." Lupin said sternly, "If something doesn't happen tonight, I'm not doing this anymore. I don't care how angry you are that she's been in hiding all her life. Harry, we have lives too."

"And that's fine!" Harry retorted, "I just…have a feeling."

"I'm getting a cup of coffee." And the werewolf was gone.

It was close to nine in the evening when they saw movement from the apartment building. Melrose had emerged from the building wearing a red hot and very short dress and carrying only a purse. When she turned around and surveyed the street, she narrowed her eyes at Harry, turned on her high heel, and walked to the curb. Holding her fingers to her mouth, she whistled loudly and a cab pulled up. She opened the door and got in.

Sirius was quite the quick thinker, for when he noticed she would be driving away, he transformed into his dog form and jogged after the car.

Harry groaned, "Really? She couldn't just stay put?"

"Guess not, mate…" Ron sighed, and he watched Lupin walk up from where he got his coffee. "How'd you get a coffee at nine at night?"

"They don't know I got a coffee. They'll see money on the counter tomorrow morning."

"We'll have to wait here until Sirius comes back." Harry mumbled.

"No. You'll stay here until he comes back." Lupin corrected dangerously, "I have a family to get back to."

"Me too, Harry. You and Sirius can take it from here, can't you?"

And though Harry didn't want to conform to their pleas; didn't want to give them what they wanted, wanted to stay on her trail with as many people he could muster, he knew they were right. It wouldn't be fair to force them to stay and work when they wanted to get home to more…important things.

"Go." Harry said quietly. Lupin and Ron both turned where they were standing and disappeared.

He didn't have to wait long for Sirius, for the dog was already jogging along the road and back to Harry by ten. Harry stood up from where he was sitting and waited for Sirius to turn back human and catch his breath before asking him about Melrose. "Well?"

"She's at some very loud building." Sirius said gruffly, "A party place or something."

"A club?"

"Sure. Whatever. It hurts my ears…"

"Will you show me where it's at? Then you can just go home if you want."

"Yeah, sure. Come on, then."

It took another hour for the two to walk back to where Sirius had found the club. And Sirius was completely right-It was loud. Techno music was booming from where the windows were, there was flashing lights that blinded Harry and Sirius, and so much talking, screaming, laughing and drunken singing that Harry almost couldn't stand it. He could only imagine what kind of tolerance Melrose had to have to be able to stand something like the building he was about to enter. Harry dragged Sirius to a nearby alleyway to discuss plans.

"It's too much for me, Harry." Sirius groaned, "I'll be heading off. You tell me what you see tomorrow morning, then?"

"Sure." Harry said, and he pulled out his wand. He pointed it at his ears and mumbled an incantation that would somehow muffle away the loud sounds of the club.

"Good luck. And try not to be drugged or something."

"I'll do my best. See you." And Harry watched at Sirius walked away, into the dark night.

Harry slowly entered the building, flashing his ID at the bouncer before letting him see the "auror" bit. Walking inside, Harry was frustrated to realize that there was more people than he expected. In fact, he was sure there were hundreds of them. Bodies pressed together so tight that Harry had to squeeze himself through to find his way. Where the hell was Melrose? And why would she come to a place like this?

It took Harry up until midnight for him to find Melrose. And the only way he was able to find her was when he heard a sharp, "Melrose! Come quick!" from behind him. Sure enough, he saw the thin red figure of Melrose rush through the crowd and towards the bathroom. Of course! Why didn't Harry think of the bathrooms? Girls always go to the bathroom in places like this!

But there was something very different about the bathroom in this building. Instead of there being girls coming in and out of the bathroom, there were also men. But they weren't going to powder their nose. Something was happening inside the bathroom that was causing the patrons of the club, and Melrose, into enough of a panic to forget the gender rules of the room. This was why Harry didn't hesitate to rush through the crowd and follow Melrose.

"Stacy!" He heard the voice of Melrose say from somewhere in front of him, "Where's Stacy?"

"In this stall! On the floor!"

Harry rushed forward and was quick enough to see Melrose kneel to the ground before one of the closed stalls. "Stacy!" Melrose said, "Stacy, take my hand!"

The woman, Stacy, was laying on the floor, flailed out, and seeming to be unconscious. Melrose couldn't get to her, though, because the stall had been locked. Melrose was reaching her hand under the stall door and taking Stacy's hand in hers, but Stacy wasn't showing any sign of life. "Someone call a janitor!" Melrose yelled, "To get the door open!"

"I'll do it." Harry said.

Melrose looked up from where she was fretting over Stacy and stared at Harry in shock, "_You!_"

"Tell everyone to leave, and I'll get the door open." But Melrose stared at him, seeming to not believe that he was there. "Melrose." Harry started, "I can help…"

"Get out!" Melrose yelled, and much to Harry's surprise, it wasn't directed to him. "Please! We'll handle it! Please get out! Out you go, thank you! Goodbye!" And she shuffled everyone out of the bathroom and locked the door behind her. "You better-"

But Harry was already ahead of her. He pointed his wand at the lock and forced it open with a simple spell. Melrose, without thanking him, rushed past him and into the stall. "Stacy!" Melrose said to her friend's ear, "Stacy, can you hear me?"

"What's wrong with her?" Harry asked as he, too, knelt down beside her.

"Overdosed, I think." Melrose mumbled, "I found a bottle of pills in her purse…"

"Overdosed?"

"You know. She took too many pills and drank alcohol. Haven't you ever-"

"I'm a wizard, remember? We have potions."

"Just.." Melrose sighed, "Just get out of the way." She leaned over and pulled Stacy into a sitting position, "Stacy! Hi there, are you alright? Can you hear me?" Stacy grumbled softly and rolled her head to the side. Melrose propped her friend up against her own body and looked to Harry, "Can you get a glass of water for me?"

"Sure." Harry said, and he transfigured a cup out of one of Melrose's lipsticks in her purse, filled it with water, and handed it over to Melrose.

Melrose took it and shook Stacy, "Come on, Stacy. We need you to throw up for us…"

"Throw..up?"

Stacy awoke enough to drink Melrose's water, and then spew it up in the toilet before her. This went on in pattern for over an hour, with Melrose supporting her friend and Harry refilling the cup of water. Eventually, Melrose consented to call an ambulance, and she instructed Harry to stand by the door and only open it when the paramedics identified themselves.

Once they came, they decided that though Stacy would live if Melrose just gave her more water, it would be best for her to go to the hospital. So Melrose gathered her purse and was intending to leave with a quick 'thanks' to Harry, but he stopped her right before she was able to leave through the door.

The trip to the hospital was normal. They hooked Stacy up to her vitals and Melrose sat quietly in the corner of the vehicle, watching Harry. When they got to the hospital, both were asked to wait in the waiting room while Stacy got her stomach pumped.

So it was three in the morning and Harry had found himself sitting next to the unregistered witch in the middle of a muggle hospital. "So…What was it like?"

Melrose didn't answer for a long while. Harry was sure he was supposed to ask again, but he didn't have to, because she said, "Pretty normal." And he knew she knew what he was asking. "I mean..I could make weird things happen all through my childhood. Make things fly, cast spells, but I still had a normal life. Went to high school, to dances, that sort of thing."

"How did you learn to control it?"

"Practice, really. And I found a spell book once."

"Really? Where?"

"I saw another witch do magic with a wand when I was thirteen and followed her to the entrance to your Ministry. She dropped that spell book just outside and I took it. Been using it ever since. I realized that most of the incantations were just a form of Latin verbs, so I tried new verbs and went from there."

"Why did you hide from us?"

But Harry didn't get his answer, because the nurse came out and informed the both of them that Stacy was just fine and that she would be staying the night in the hospital. Melrose stood up from where she was, sighed, and started to head to Stacy's room.

"Wait!"

And Melrose turned around, giving him a confused look. Harry went on, "You still need to visit Kingsley…"

"I will. Sometime. Thanks for your help." And she turned again on her heel and started to walk away.

* * *

No, I'm not able to stick to one story. This is kind of a bad thing...


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, Potter!"

"Ignore him." Ron suggested.

"I can't ignore him." Harry sneered, "We work together now. We have to communicate."

"Then at least wait until he calls you Harry."

"That will never happen."

Ron scoffed loudly and glared at his friend, "And why not?"

"Because I'll never stop calling him Malfoy." Harry mumbled as the blonde approached. Raising himself to his full height, which wasn't as impressive as he hoped, he said gruffly, "Malfoy."

"Heard you're having a little bit of trouble rounding up an unregistered witch." Draco said smugly, "Thought I'd wish you luck today as you go out stalking her again."

It was Monday. After a very tired Harry reported to Kingsley early Sunday morning, and had intended to go out once again to her home, Kingsley insisted that Harry take the day off and get some much needed rest. Harry at first refused-saying that his job as auror was too important and that he was close to convincing Melrose to come into the office. But after a while, and many yawns later, Harry complied and went back home to sleep. Sirius had greeted him with an amused smile, the woman he was dating sitting at the table smiling kindly at him, but he didn't greet either of them. He was angry that she was eating his food and plus, the sooner he was passed out on Regulus' old bed, the easier it would be to ignore Sirius' coos over the woman.

"Shut up, Malfoy." Came Ron's famous retort.

"I wasn't talking to you." Draco said as he watched his wife, Astoria, approach from his left. Smirking, he wrapped an arm around her waist and held her close as he looked back to Harry and Ron, but his sharp eyes landed on Ron, "How far along is your wife, now, Weasley?"

"Two months." Ron snarled.

"Funny. So is Astoria." He smiled at his wife, "Still as shapely as ever. She's always had the best body. Has Granger-oh, I'm sorry-Mrs. Weasley bloated up yet?"

"Don't..you…dare…" Ron bit out, and he made an advance upon Draco.

Draco was prepared to fight, just like he always had been during school, but Ron's attention left Draco's eye and watched something from behind his enemy. Draco and Harry watched and turned around as well.

Walking down the wide dark corridor of the Ministry of Magic, wearing a bright blue tight dress and tall heels was no one other than Melrose. Her hair was down and flowing behind her and she held her purse in her hand in a way that defined power. She wasn't looking at the other people of the room, but looking forward, intent on where she was going. Her jaw was sharp, her mouth tightly shut, and her chin was high up in the air. Most of the people who were near her backed off her when she passed them, too confused and bewildered at her defiant aura to ask her who she was or what her business was.

Upon making eye contact with Harry, she lifted an eyebrow and her course of footing only changed slightly to meet up with Harry and Ron; Draco and Astoria watching.

"Melrose…" Harry said, shocked like everyone else, "You actually came."

"Well. You did help save Stacy's life on Saturday. I figured I owed you." She looked at Ron and held out her hand, "Melrose. You were in the laundry mat as well, weren't you?"

Ron took her hand, "Y-yeah. I'm Ron."

Melrose looked from Ron to Draco and Astoria, and professionally, she also held out her hand to them and said, "Hello."

Draco didn't take it. After getting over his initial shock, he sneered and said, "I'm Draco Malfoy and this is my wife, Astoria. We're nobility in this world. Pureblood. And you're…a muggleborn, correct?"

"Hardly." Melrose said, retracting her hand and looking to Harry, "Where is this man you wanted me to see?"

"I'll take you." Harry said, holding out his hand to show her the way while looking back at Draco, "Got anything else to say, Malfoy?"

Malfoy sneered, "Tell your wife we say hello, Weasle."

"Come on." Harry muttered, pulling both Ron and Melrose by the arm and down the hallway to Kingsley's office.

"Who is that?" Melrose asked. Her attention was still on Draco and Astoria, who hadn't moved from their spot.

"Just a couple of jerks." Ron said, "Best if you don't talk to them."

When they finally got to the office of the Minister for Magic, Harry knocked on the door three times. It swung open and Kingsley was sitting behind his desk, writing something, when he looked up and noticed Harry and Ron. When his eyes fell upon Melrose, however, he practically jumped up from his spot and walked over to shake her hand, "Kingsley Shacklebolt. You must be Melrose."

"Hello, sir." Melrose said, and Kingsley motioned for her to sit down.

Harry looked at Ron, "So…uh…I guess we'll be off…"

"This is still your assignment, Harry." Kingsley said as he poured four cups of tea.

So Harry and Ron lingered in the background as Kingsley placed the teacup in front of Melrose and said, "So. You know why we've asked you here?"

"Because I'm unregistered." Melrose said quickly.

"Correct." Kingsley said calmly, "Tell me. Is Melrose Jane Sherwood your real name?"

"Nope."

Harry seemed to have felt a punch in the side of his head, and as he looked to his best friend, he saw that Ron was also very much surprised.

"And your real name?"

"Melrose Jane Lestrange."

Ron sputtered loudly and Harry nearly choked on his tea himself. "What?" Harry yelled, but Kingsley held up his hand, indicating that there was more to say.

"Your father?"

"Rabastan."

"That makes sense. Rabastan and his wife went missing after the First Wizarding War. We assumed they were dead. Where are they now?"

"Home." Melrose said calmly, "Watching television, I would imagine."

"And how did you avoid going to Hogwarts while being the spawn of two Death Eaters?"

And this was when Melrose sighed deeply and leaned back on her chair, seemingly not in favor of telling her story. "When I was 11..." She said calmly, "I got my letter from Hogwarts. My parents and I were living in a very lavish house just outside of London but that was only because they inherited it from some distant relative or whatever. We often were visited by other Death Eaters. You know, my aunt and uncle, the Malfoys-Draco obviously doesn't remember me."

"You're Draco's first cousin…" Ron gaped.

"Shush, Ron." Kingsley said, and he smiled to Melrose, "Continue."

"They're jackasses, the all of them." Melrose said harshly, "And I didn't want to attend schooling. So I got the spell book that I pinched from someone going to the Ministry and I obliviated their minds and made them believe they were muggles. And we moved to the city and I was raised as a muggle child. Sometimes they accidentally did magic and I had to obliviate their minds again-but the older we all got, the less I had to."

"You…" Harry started, "You wiped away their entire heritage…Their entire lives!"

"I wanted to be normal!" Melrose said suddenly, standing up and looking to Harry and Ron, "I didn't want to be a part of this caste system. I wanted to go to school, have boyfriends, watch films and listen to boy bands! I didn't want to do magic!" She walked to the door and opened it, seeing Draco, who had stood by the door with his ear pressed against the wood in hopes of hearing what was going on inside. His face was white with shock-he had heard. Melrose pulled him by the scruff of his neck and into the office, "Look at him!" She screamed, "He's ruined! His entire family-our entire family-is dirt! Why would I want a life like that?"

"You acted like you didn't know anything about our world!" Ron yelled, "You lied!"

"My entire life is a lie! I obviously had practice!"

"Stop!" Kingsley demanded, and all four of the others did as they were told and watched the Minister. Kingsley approached Melrose and Draco and gently made her let him go before looking at her, "You prevented two Death Eaters from reeking havoc. For that, we are forever grateful. But for doing underage and illegal magic, we are not."

"Then go ahead and give them their memories back." Melrose challenged.

Kingsley didn't reply. He only walked around to the back of his desk and sat down once more, watching the four of them intently.

"We're…we're related…?"

Melrose glanced at Draco, "You don't remember me?"

Draco stared at her for a very long time, and it was observed that a type of light went off in his head, for he said, "Melrose!"

"Um." Melrose said, but she turned to address Harry, "Sorry I've wasted so much of your time..I never intended to be found…"

"What were you going to do when you had children who did magic?" Harry asked, "What were you going to do, a pureblood witch, when a future muggle husband found out about your magic?"

Melrose looked like she was being scolded as a child, for she looked down at the floor and didn't look Harry in the eye. But she slowly looked up at him, pleading, "I was trapped. Imagine living in a family like that. I had no where to go."

"You chickened out." Harry said harshly, and he felt Ron put his hand on his shoulder but he shrugged it off, "Sirius, my godfather, was in the same place as you were all his life. And he didn't resort to wiping his parents' minds. He stood up to his parents and was disowned. He fought for good, publicly, for his entire life! And you! You…You cowa-!" Harry didn't finish his sentence, because Melrose's hand collided with his cheek, and he stumbled backwards.

"You people." Melrose started, glaring at each and every one of them, "Disgust me. Your Ministry, your way of life here, everything." She walked over to pick up her coat and purse, before heading to the door. She stopped and looked at Draco, "Don't bother looking for my parents. They're well hidden." And she opened the door and slammed it violently on her way out.

Harry was the first to recover from the slap, surprisingly. He opened the door of Kingsley's office and started to walk outside. He could still see the bright blue from Melrose's dress and sped up to catch up with her.

"Harry! Come back!" Ron yelled from behind him, and he heard another pair of foot steps-Draco was coming too.

The three of them rushed down the hallways together, each for three different reasons. Draco because it was his cousin that was walking away, Ron because he needed to prevent Harry from doing anything drastic, and Harry because he wasn't finished. "Come back here!" Harry yelled.

Melrose kept walking though Harry knew she had heard him. Once she got into the mob of people, who leaped out of the way when she went past, she disappeared in the same golden light that she had a week ago.

"Dammit!" Harry screamed, causing the people who were shocked by Melrose to be shocked by Harry.

"Wait 'till my parents hear about this…" Draco breathed.

Harry turned on Draco, "Oh no. You won't be telling your parents anything."

"The hell I won't! Their brother and sister in law have been living as muggles for the past decade!"

"Draco, your parents knowing won't help anything."

"Says you, _Potter_."

But before Draco could even fathom the idea of disobeying Harry, Harry got out his wand and pointed it to Draco's brain, and he said, "Obliviate."

For a moment, Draco's eyes became glassy and distant, and when the spell was over, he came back into conscious and looked at Harry. "…What do you want?"

"Have you seen Kingsley, by chance?"

"No. I haven't seen Kingsley all day. Why don't you check his office, Potter." And Draco sneered and walked away.

Ron had at some point squeaked when Harry pointed his wand at another Ministry employee, but Harry ignored him and looked to Ron. "Come on. We're going to Hogwarts."

* * *

Alright, a few things to address here? First of all, Rabastan Lestrange is the brother of Bellatrix's husband, but he is only mentioned a few times in the book and it is only assumed that he either died in the first war or fought in the second war as just a random Death Eater. So I've changed his story slightly. Also, I have a goal with this story. I'm trying to make my female characters less, how you saw, "Mary-Jane" like and give them more independence and character. I want to write novels someday, and it won't do if all of my female characters are just like Bella Swan. So I'll be putting in a lot of effort into the character of Melrose. Thanks for reading! :) Review please!


	4. Chapter 4

Professor McGonagall wasn't impressed with Harry and Ron barging into Hogwarts during school hours and asking to look at the records for the second time. She even went to say that Harry had simply forgotten something, but he insisted that he must see the records of all letters that were sent out. Sighing, the old Professor took them to Dumbledore's old office; now her own, and led them into a smaller room where the files were the last time. She pulled out the boxes by magic, there were at least six of them, and placed them on the table in the middle of the room. Then she glared at them one more time and left.

Ron held up his wand, "Accio Melrose Sherwood's letter!"

"Ron, her last name isn't Sherwood. It's Lestrange."

"Oh. Right." Ron held it up again, "Accio Melrose Lestange's letter!"

And much to Harry's relief, a letter shot out from one of the boxes and flew to Ron. He caught it and handed it to Harry, feeling that Harry deserved to see it first. Harry took it and opened the file. There was the letter to Melrose, just like the one that he received, and a little file that was compiled when she was eleven.

_**Melrose Jane Lestrange **_  
_Born: August 24th_  
_Pure-Blood_  
_Daughter of Rabastan and Jane Lestrange_

****

_Family attended Hogwarts: _

_-Robastan _  
_-Jane _  
_-Black Family _  
_-Lestrange Family _  
_-Malfoy Family_  
_**  
Family currently attending Hogwarts:  
**-Draco Malfoy_  
_**  
Notes: **Melrose is the daughter of suspected Death Eater Rabastan and niece of convicted convict and murderess Bellatrix Lestrange. Suspected house: Slytherin._

_Declined. _

"Declined?" Harry mumbled, "Hogwarts turned her away?"

"No mate. Once Hogwarts sends out its letters, they don't decline. Melrose declined Hogwarts."

"How do you…decline Hogwarts?"

"The parents send a letter back stating their choice and reason for declining. Here, is the letter from her parents there?"

Harry shuffled through the file and pulled out a piece of parchment, smoother and of better quality than Hogwarts', and with the Lestrange emblem engraved in silver and green on the top. Harry read it aloud:

"_We, Jane and Rabastan Lestrange, regret to inform Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry that our daughter, Melrose Lestrange, will not be commencing her magical education at Hogwarts. She will instead be attending Beauxbatons Academy of Magic. _

_Regards,_  
_Jane Lestrange_  
_Rabastan Lestrange_

And they're both signed…"

"That's bull." Ron snuffed, "Her parents lied about her going to Beauxbotons."

Harry didn't say anything for a long while, but instead looked at the small list of family that had already attended Hogwarts before Melrose. "Don't you think someone would have found this suspicious?"

"What? Going to Beauxbotons?"

"Well kinda." Harry showed Ron the list, "Her entire family line has attended Hogwarts, and suddenly her parents say she's not going to follow the tradition but go to another school?"

"Malfoy was going to go to Drumstring. Maybe McGonagall thought that her parents wanted her away from Hogwarts. Especially after the war."

"But Draco ended up coming _here_." Harry insisted, "If Draco came and the Malfoys thought it safe, then surely they would think the same for Melrose."

Ron nodded in agreement. "Think her parents wrote that letter?"

"Well. Considering she was willing to obliviate her parents' memories, I doubt it."

"Imperious curse?"

"Yeah." Harry sighed as he started to gather the file together, "Better bring this to Kingsley."

"She did a Unforgivable Curse at age eleven." Ron said, shaking his head in disbelief, "Eleven!"

They had started walking down the corridor oh their old school by then. Harry nodded, "She had practice. Her entire family is made up of Dark Wizards. I bet she learned it from them."

"Pretty desperate to not be a part of our world."

"Pretty interesting out she went undetected."

Ron nodded slowly as they went to McGonagall's office and Floo'ed back to the Ministry. Kingsley was especially impressed that they provided him with Melrose's file. When they were sitting down for tea and Kingsley was looking through the file, he nodded calmly and said, "Well. That's one case closed."

"What?"

Kingsley looked up, slightly surprised, "What do you mean..what?"

"Case closed?"

"Yes. Your assignment was to find Melrose and have her come into my office. My goal was to find out who she was. And I did. She's been a citizen of the Magical world all her life, just hiding. We've found out what we want to know."

"What about her parents?"

"We can't do anything now. Their minds are gone."

"And the illegal magic she did?"

"We have no proof."

"What about that?" Harry went on, pointing at the letter from her parents to Hogwarts, "They _obviously_ didn't write that!"

"The only way we would be able to convict her is if we saw the spells from her wand, but we can't. She doesn't use a wand."

"She used _someone's_ wand."

"You're not suggesting to hunt down every wand that Melrose has used in her childhood and check the spells are you?"

"It would be her parents' wands." Harry went on, "Because anyone else, the Malfoys, the Lestranges and the Blacks, would have made a deal about it if they knew."

"And do you think she'd keep her parents' wands in a place you could find them?"

Harry thought for a moment, "I bet they're either at her house…or at her parents' house."

"Harry. You're implying an invasion of privacy under no reason or logic."

"She did illegal magic."

"So did you."

"I didn't obliviate my family's brains! Ron, don't you agree?"

"We could just leave her alone, Harry." Ron said softly, "This has been…quite the case."

"Well I'm not. She slapped me!"

Kingsley sighed and looked at Melrose's file, "You only want to hunt her down because she slapped you."

"I want to hunt her down because she's illegal." Harry hissed.

"You're going to get slapped again, mate." Ron said.

"No I won't. I won't let her."

Kingsley got up from where he was sitting and muttered something about Ron and Harry being dismissed, so Harry hopped up from where he was sitting and started to leave the room. Ron followed, glaring at his friend, "And how are you going to go about this?"

"Malfoy."

"…Draco?"

"Yes. He might know where Melrose's parents are. Or at least know where they last were…"

And it didn't take long to find Draco. He always lingered around the Ministry, but was so easy to spot and so talkative to people up high, that all Harry had to do was ask a few people if they had seen the blond, and he caught sight of Draco within a couple of minutes. "Hey, Malfoy!" Harry yelled, causing Draco to scrunch his shoulders unpleasantly and turn around with a sneer upon his face.

When Harry was close enough so that Draco didn't have to make an effort to talk, he said, "Potter."

"You have a cousin named Melrose Lestrange, do you remember her?"

"What's it to you?"

"We might know where she is. She and her family went missing a couple of years ago, didn't they? When you were thirteen?"

"..How did you know that?"

"It's uh…my new case."

"The last we saw of that family was when I was in my third year. They had Christmas with us."

"And where did they live?"

"In Wiltshire, like us."

"They're not there anymore?"

Draco scolded, "Well, obviously, if they were, they wouldn't be missing."

"Where was their house?"

Draco narrowed his eyes at his rival, "If I tell you, you have to update me on everything you find out."

"I will."

"They were by the river, next to a valley on the other side of the village. Their house has since been burned down."

"When did it burn down?"

"When they went missing. We assumed it was this burning that drove them away."

"Thanks." And Harry nodded to Ron to follow him.

Ron trotted next to his friend all the way up to the floo fireplaces, and when they finally got there, Ron stopped Harry by asking, "You're going to the house?"

"Yeah. Are you coming?"

Ron checked his watch, "I need to be home by six."

"We'll get Lupin and Sirius first."

Before Harry or Ron knew it, they were standing in the middle of Wiltshire with Lupin and Sirius, who had both been contacted by Harry to aid him. Sirius was all for it; he loved adventure and to be getting out of the house, even though he had a young woman that often was there. Lupin on the other hand didn't think it much a good idea; taking the same side as Kingsley. But Harry insisted that he needed to bring Melrose to justice, and so, he convinced them all, and they were standing next to the river and valley that Draco had described; outside the property where the Lestrange's once lived. It was all flattened with a few bricks and ruins from what looked like a wonderful house.

Harry looked around and saw an old woman hammering by. Waving to his friends to wait, he approached her, "Excuse me. Could you tell me who used to live here?"

"Mmmm?" She said softly, "A family. With a little girl."

"What were they like?"

"Strange folk." She said, "Never came out." And she teetered off.

"Fidelius Charm." Ron mumbled and Harry nodded.

"Who's the secret keeper?" Lupin asked.

Harry thought for a long moment. About Melrose, about the case, about the house. And it seemed that Ron and the others were as well, and as though on some type of cue, a large mansion appeared before the both of them, towering over them greatly and massively, impressive, dark, and not lived in for years.

"Apparently…Draco."

Harry led the way into the house, Ron behind him, and his godfather and former teacher respectfully. "It makes sense, really." Ron muttered as he watched the dust poof up around his footprints, "Must have made him secret keeper during their last Christmas. During a playtime when the adults weren't around."

"That's another bit of illegal magic." Harry hissed.

"Harry." Sirius said, "It's just like Grimmuld Place."

And it was. Dark and with Dark magic seeping through the walls, every artifact bound to be something that Harry nor Lupin wanted to touch. Like Grimmuld Place, it had gone years without being attended to, and like Grimmuld Place, it bothered Harry. The house was set up like a country house rather than a city house, however, and there was a long stairway to Harry's right that led up to upstairs, a kitchen just before him, and a living room just beyond that. "Look for the wands." Harry instructed.

The house had no personal items left in it. It seemed that all photos, books, posters, drawings, and anything else for that matter was taken out. This was most likely the idea of Melrose, because she had to convey and entire history to her parents. What was left were things merely there to carry dust, and hide what was most dangerous.

"She grew up here." Ron whispered, looking around at the dusty scary things, the spiders, the boggorts.

"No. She grew up in London, technically."

"The fact that this young woman was able to do this type of magic at the age of eleven is astounding." Lupin went on, "Someone must have taught her all of this. She must have learned all this when she was little."

"It explained why she doesn't need a wand." Sirius went on, "A little impressive, that one."

"Found one!" Ron said, and he held up a wand that looked older than the house. Harry stopped and looked at it also. It was long, black, and fragile after years of being unused. Ron placed it on the table in the middle of the kitchen and pointed his own wand at it. He muttered the incantation, and there was an image of a man who had dark hair stare blankly next to a woman who had also black hair, both of them looked a bit like Melrose, their eyes were blank, their mouths open, and when this look left, they sat obediently, and the woman said, "Tea, dear?"

"That's the one that obliviated their minds." Harry said, and he pocketed the wand.

"And we need another one." Ron continued, and he looked through the box where he found the first, "Ah! Here it is." And again, he placed the spell on it. This one was just the image of a house, and invisible waves being cast around it.

"The wand that made the charm around the house."

"Which one did the Imperious curse?" Lupin asked.

"Most likely the first; she seemed to use that one to manipulate their minds."

"We should give them their memory back." Ron suddenly said, and at doing this, caused all three of the other men to look at him. Ron, instead, was looking at some old paper on the table. They were full of addresses.

"Why?"

"Because it's only fair." Ron went on, and he held up a piece of paper with an address circled in red, "And I know where to find them."

Harry stared at Ron for a long while and waited for Lupin and Sirius to object, but neither did, and so he said, "Well then. It's only four o-clock. Should be home by dinner…"

"We're having kidney soup tonight." Ron said happily.

"Let's go then." Harry said, and taking once last look around the house, he followed the others outside, where they disappeared into space, and intended to arrive at the address. To meet Jane and Rabastan Lestrange.

* * *

I know it's a bit of a boring chapter, but I feel it's needed to make the story make sense. A little detective work on Harry's part. ;) Thanks for reading!

Edit: I swear this fucking formatting issue is getting on my nerves. It switches everything around so that it's harder to read. Sorry about that guys. If you read it before Tuesday, you might want to read it again.


	5. Chapter 5

The house of the Lestranges was humble and quaint; yellow, with white shutters and flower beds that surrounded the small home. It was also in the middle of Scotland, no where near London or Hogwarts, in the middle of no where. Harry was particularly worried about walking into a house of two Death Eaters and restoring their memories so that they believed that Voldemort still had a chance. Or worse yet, try to carry on what Voldemort couldn't do. Harry remembered the Lestranges-all of them. Each and every one that he had encountered whether while battling or in the memories of Tom Riddle and Horace Slughorn, it was always the Lestranges that were the most loyal, the most eccentric, and most willing to appease their Dark Lord.

"Trying to keep them well hidden…" Ron muttered to Harry as he walked up to the front door and knocked on it. Sirius and Lupin didn't join them; they opted to go back to the Ministry and tell Kingsley of the updates.

There was a soft shuffle behind the door and then it opened to reveal a man that looked a lot like Sirius; black thick hair, and hauntingly handsome. It was Melrose's father. "Yes?" He said. He was wearing normal muggle clothing; grandpa themed even. Harry looked over at Ron, his friend was smiling, because they both knew that a Lestrange with half a wizard mind wouldn't be caught wearing what Mr. Lestrange was.

"Hello, sir, are you Rabastan Lestrange?"

"..yes.."

"Can we speak with you? May we come in?"

"Of course." Rabastan said, and he moved to the side in order to let them in.

The inside of the house was just like something the Dursleys would be proud of. Everything is either covered in pink or frills and completely clean. There were no magical items, especially dark. It was completely and utterly normal, and to Harry, very very boring.

Rabastan offered them both a seat at the table and he started to brew a pot of tea. "So, what brings you two here? Are you police?"

"Yes." Harry said before Ron could say otherwise.

"Have we done something?" Rabastan asked.

"Not really." Ron said, "We've been informed that you and your wife, Jane, have been missing for the past couple of years."

Rabastan turned around, shocked, his eyebrows raised, "Really?"

"Yes." Harry confirmed, "The same with your daughter, Melrose."

"Oh my." Rabastan said gently, placing a girly teacup in front of Ron, who took a sip. "That's so strange. We're not in records? The city records? Government records?"

"Well, sir, we're hoping that the missing persons just have the same name as you and your family. One large crazy coincidence." Ron went on, "But to confirm this, we need to ask you some questions."

"Sure."

"Who are your parents?"

"I never met my biological parents. I went through foster homes through my childhood."

Harry glanced over at Ron, who already looked concerned, and he asked, "Your wife?"

"Foster child as well."

"How did you two meet?"

"Well…" Rabastan said calmly as he sat down, and thought, "It's a little foggy. Patchy, really." He started, "We were young. Only in our twenties. And it was a blind date."

"Patchy?"

Rabastan nodded, "I have horrible memory. Sometimes it just fogs in an out."

And Harry remembered when he viewed Slughorn's memory of Tom Riddle asking about dark magic. How he had tampered with it and it fogged around him in the same way Rabastan's memory did. It was certain that Rabastan's memory had been tampered with. To what extent, Harry didn't know, but from the stories that Rabastan was telling, enough. He glanced at Ron; his friend's jaw and eyes were sharp.

"My Melrose…" Rabastan started, and he got up from where he was sitting and went over to the china cabinet where there was an array of pictures lined up on one of the shelves. He smiled kindly at the two boys and placed the picture in Harry's hands. Melrose was sitting next to the fireplace, her smile bright and her face only slightly younger than he was accustomed to. She was beautiful. When she looked kind, happy, and warm, Harry couldn't help but let his eyes linger on her cheekbones and pout lips a little longer than maybe her father preferred. He was taken out of his observations when Rabastan said, "Have you spoken to her yet?"

"We have." Harry confirmed, "She told me we'd find you here."

"She works in the city now." Rabastan went on fondly, "Very important job. She doesn't often get to be with us. But when she is, it's lovely. She's lovely."

"How do you normally pass the time?"

"She likes magic tricks." Rabastan said, "She's very good at them…A pro. I told her to go professional but she went to the newspaper firm instead."

"I bet." Ron said sarcastically, gaining a stern look from Harry.

"She was always so bright." Rabastan went on, "Very protective of us. Always asked what we were doing, how we're doing. She even sat down and listened to my dreams; my memories…"

"She would, would she?" Harry asked, while glancing down at the picture once more. Melrose, in the picture, didn't look the least manipulative.

"Yes." Rabastan said softly, "She's a great listener…"

The three men were quiet for a long while. Ron sipped his tea softly, glancing around the room for anything of interest. Rabastan jabbered on about Jane's garden, which was newly replanted. Harry glared down at the picture.

"Excuse me. I think the mail is here. I'm expecting a package." Rabastan said gently, as he rose from his seat.

When Rabastan was gone, Ron muttered, "Didn't much _try_ to make it convincing."

"No. She didn't." Harry agreed as he glanced around the room. There wasn't anything interesting to note, let alone anything interesting to look at. "She didn't expect to be caught."

"Why on earth would she do this?" Ron said suddenly, causing his friend to glace at him with question. Ron continued, "Really. Think about it. She said she didn't want to be a part of the family; that she didn't like that they were Dark wizards. Just like Sirius. But it seems a lot deeper than that. Something else must have made her want to do all this…put all this effort into erasing her parents' lives…"

"Yeah." Harry said, "But what? What could be traumatizing enough for her to want to?"

"Guess there is one way to find out…" Ron said, nodding his head to the approaching Rabastan carrying a package.

"What did you get in the mail?" Ron asked.

Rabastan smiled at his guests and opened the box proudly, "Been waiting for it for months…" He said happily, and he pulled out something that looked made up of wood and rubber. Harry leaned closer to look at it; out of habit, expecting to see something alone the lines of a broom kit. But it wasn't. It was one of the wall mounts that had a talking plastic fish upon it, and when someone walked by, it would sing 'Don't Worry, Be Happy.' Rabastan held it up and smiled, "Beautiful, huh?"

"That's it." Harry heard himself say, and he pointed his wand at a confused Rabastan and said, "Stpefy." and again, after Rabastan was out, "Mobilicorpus." And thus, Rabastan's stunning body was carried back to the Ministry of Magic by Harry and Ron.

The next day, Harry was sitting in the middle of a large black room, the same that he had his hearing in years previous, but instead of sitting in front of Barty Crouch and Delores Umbridge, he was in there with only Ron, Sirius, Lupin and Kingsley. The rest of the floor had been closed down in the event of reawaking Rabastan's memories.

Rabastan himself was strapped to the large wooden chair that was provided for people in questioning; his arms and legs were strapped and his chest was too. He was still calmly sleeping, though Harry and Ron had spent the entirety of the morning restoring the man's memories. As far as they knew, Rabastan still thought he was fast asleep in his luscious house in Wiltshire, and would awaken in the wizarding world with his wife by his side, and an 11 year old daughter.

Though he knew he should have, Harry decided not to inform Melrose of kidnapping her father and restoring his memories. At the moment, all he wanted was the truth. If that meant hurting Melrose in the process, well, she did slap him.

Rabastan began to stir. Sirius grunted behind Harry and Lupin pulled out his wand to prepare himself.

He lifted his head, his eyes were slitted and his mouth was tight. He didn't look like the friendly kind old man that he did the day before; he looked mean, cut, dark. Rabastan slowly raised his head up to look around himself, and then he looked at the patrons of the room. His eyes had lost all its color and brightness, and instead was replaced by stone cold grey. Rabastan grunted, and said in a husked voice, "What have I done now?"

Harry glanced at Ron, who nodded his head. Harry got up from where he was sitting and walked around his seat to stand in front of Rabastan, "What's your name?"

"Rabastan Lestrange."

"Do you have a wife?"

"Jane."

"And a daughter?"

"Melrose."

"And do you know where you are?"

"The Ministry of Magic. In the court room."

"And your blood status?"

"Pureblood." His eye shone slightly brighter.

Ron snuffed, "Back to the original."

"Mr. Lestrange, I've got some bad news for you…" Harry said gently, "For the past decade, you've been living as a muggle…"

Rabastan glared at Harry, "My blood wouldn't allow it."

"Uh." Harry started.

Lupin cut in, "Look at your clothes, Rabastan."

Rabastan glanced at his shirt and pants, and his brows became thick. He then looked up at Sirius, "You're the boy…"

"Yup."

"Rabastan.." Harry said again, and he held up a mirror that was provided by Kingsley.

Rabastan looked at the mirror. After seeing the sleep gathering in the corners of his eyes, his hair grey, his face littered with age spots, he growled, "What has happened to me? A decade? How did this happen? Who are you?"

"You're memory was erased and modified to make you believe you were a muggle."

"Who would do such a thing? I'll kill them! Where's my wand?"

"Mr. Rabastan…before we punish who did this to you…You should know a little bit about us." Harry said calmly, "It's about 2000. That's your nephew over there, Sirius, who has spent the last decade or so in Azkaban. We've had another war. And my name is-"

"_Harry_!"

Harry spun around to see the doors being burst open by a rush of a very familiar gold light. Some aurors were chasing after Melrose with their hands up, yelling things like, "I'm sorry! We couldn't stop her!" and "She just charged through!"

But Melrose was ignoring them. Her eyes were set on Harry alone, who had pulled out his wand and was preparing to defend himself. Melrose stopped in front of him, glanced down at Rabastan, and then back up at Harry, "You…didn't…"

"Didn't what?" Harry said shortly, "Didn't give him back his memories? His life?"

"You did this? Who are you?"

"I can't believe you would do this!" Melrose yelled, "This is an invasion of privacy!"

"And you broke a policy! At eleven!"

"I had a reason!"

"Being scared of your parents isn't a reason!"

Harry had completely prepared himself to say something else, something along the lines of calling her a coward once more, but he was cut off by the man sitting in the chair before him. Rabastan had started to chuckle deeply, causing the two fueders to stop and look at him. Rabastan was watching Harry intently, his voice low, as he said, "You're Harry Potter…"

"Yes." Harry said sharply, "And if you're wondering, Voldemort is dead."

"You said his name.." Rabastan growled.

"He's filth. He's always been filth."

"You…disgusting…" Rabastan started, but he broke out into the high pitched and unwelcome laugh that was characteristic of the Lestranges.

"Watch it, Harry." Sirius warned, as he too started coming to the ground floor.

"I know why!" Rabastan yelled, "I know why!"

Harry glared down at Rabastan, who had went back to laughing loudly and repeating his last sentence. Harry grabbed Rabastan by the face and yelled, "Stop it! Stop saying that! Know about what? Why what?"

"I know why!" Rabastan went on, and his twisted glanced went from Harry's green eyes to the frail body of his daughter. Harry looked at well; Melrose was looking away.

"Why?" Harry went on, shaking Rabastan's head, "Why?"

"My last memory…" Chuckled Rabastan, "I received an order…"

"And order for what?"

Rabastan started to laugh again, louder than before, more violent, his face was turning red. Harry shook him even more and Ron had come over, his wand pointing at Rabastan, while Harry shook the man even more. Sirius ran over and yanked Harry off, tugging him back.

"Your last order!" Harry screamed, "What was it?"

"To kill."

Harry growled and pointed his wand at Rabastan, "To kill Melrose?" He screamed, "Tell me! Tell me or I'll kill you!"

Rabastan shook his head, chuckling even more.

"Who?"

Rabastan stopped laughing and glanced up at Harry nonchalantly, "You."

* * *

Sorry for the long update, but as I stated in one of my other stories, I've started uni and won't be able to be so devoted to updating my fanfiction. But I assure you, I'm constantly thinking of plots and ideas and trying to update as fast as I can. :) Thanks for reading!


	6. Chapter 6

Harry had been sitting in the middle of his auror office for the past hour, listening to Melrose explain in detail about her family. From what Harry gathered, Melrose was eleven when he was fourteen. At the realization that Sirius Black was free from Azkaban, and that Harry Potter was in danger, the Lestrange couple thought it would be a clever idea to instead rid the wizarding world of Harry Potter for Sirius. And they, like the rest of the wizarding world, believed that Harry's godfather was an evil killer; seeking to kill Harry for Voldemort once and for all. The Lestranges wanted to instead beat Sirius to Voldemort's favor.

And this is when Melrose stepped in. Melrose, like the rest of the children of the wizarding world, grew up hearing all about Harry Potter; the boy who lived. Unlike her parents, she believed that Harry Potter was good, and that blood purity and the caste system that Voldemort tried to enact was wrong. But she knew that if she so much as mentioned her differences to her parents, she would be punished. Sirius was able to go to Jame's house and find a new family, but Melrose's only friends were the rich snots that her parents would allow her to speak to. This included Draco and their other cousins. And if she were to just mention that she didn't like the ideas coming from their family, it would result in the worst type of results. She needed to be sly about her opinions.

She knew all about Voldemort's plans as well. Considering that she lived her life in a Dark wizard home, it had become the headquarters for remaining and loyal Death Eaters to congreate and conspire. The year before, Lucius said, he sent Tom Riddle's diary with Ginny Weasley to open the Chamber of Secrets. It was scemes like these that the Death Eaters would plan. That year, the plan was to kill off Harry Potter.

They were going to wait until Harry got to Kings Cross station. And because no one had yet to see Melrose, for she had never been to Hogwarts or otherwise been introduced to the community, Melrose was told that she would be the one to carry out the deed. A first year, the plan would be that she would get onto the Hogwarts Express and during the third hour, she would sneak into Harry's cabin and commit the killing curse. This curse, as well as many others, had already been taught to her by her parents and the Malfoy family. She didn't need Hogwarts; she needed to appease her Dark Lord.

But Melrose wouldn't have it. And one night while her parents were peacefully sleeping in their oversized emerald and silver bed, she snuck inside and stole her father and mother's wands. She then obliviated their minds, forced her mother to write the rejection letter to Hogwarts, and lived as a muggle.

So she gave up magic in order to let Harry Potter live; in hopes that this act would help save the wizarding race. In the meantime, Melrose went to normal muggle school, loved her new parents, and sometimes snuck into the Ministry of Magic at night to watch the process. Apparently, Melrose's abilities made it possible for her to run a muck undetected; this was also helped by the fact that she wasn't registered. No one could track her. No one could find her. No one could identify her. No one could arrest her.

Harry had been silent during the entirety of Melrose's story. Lupin and Sirius had came in in the beginning and stood behind Melrose's chair. They nodded through the entire thing. Rabastan and Melrose's story matched perfectly. Rabastan and his family were really going to use Melrose to assassinate Harry.

"Are we finished then?"

"You saved me."

"Can I go home now?"

"If you hadn't done that…"

"Can you put my father's memories back to where I left them?"

"Why?"

Melrose got up from where she was sitting and went over to stand by the door, her hand on the handle, intending to leave the room. But she stopped and looked at Harry once more. There was a long pause between them. Harry watched her. He watched her chest huff up and down to the beat of her breathing, her lips slightly part because she was about to answer, and her eyes bear into Harry's; they were strong, determined, and eyes that knew that she hadn't done something wrong. "Because." She said, "I wanted a family to love. Have you ever felt that?"

"…Yeah…"

She turned around and opened the door without another word and closed it behind her. Harry looked up at Lupin and Sirius. Sirius was the first to speak, "Impressive."

"Oh my god." Harry moaned, "And I was so angry with her…"

"She saved your life, Harry!"

Within the next hour, Rabastan's memories were altered once again, and he was sent home to be with his wife. Melrose would have to be diligent once more in regards to monitoring her parents' memories, but she seemed happy to have her reputation cleared once more.

"Well…" Melrose said with a sigh as she put her coat on, "This is it, then."

Harry glanced at her. She was leaning against the wall of the Ministry corridor, looking at all the other wizards and witches. He too was leaning against the wall, his arms across his chest. "What will you do now?"

"Go back to work. Go back to my life." She said, and she glanced at him, "You'll stop following me around."

"I didn't follow you around."

"For two weeks."

"For the safety of-"

"I'm pretty sure I don't need a lecture on the safety of the wizarding world."

"No…no. I suppose not…"

She pushed herself off the wall and smiled at him. She held out her hand and Harry slowly took it. "Nice meeting you." She paused and looked at their hands, "Well. Not really…"

"I understand."

She let go and with one last polite smile, she turned on her heel just like she normally did, and strutted off in her manner. And Harry realized something. She was beautiful. He had realized this two weeks previous, but at that moment, it was her personality that he had become attracted to. Sure, she had slapped him across the face. But during that day, Harry realized that she made one of the largest sacrifices of the wizarding world. She had saved his life, and indirectly, saved the wizarding world from the reign of Voldemort. And never, not once, did she seem ashamed. Because she knew she had done the right thing. At age eleven, she had more insight of the situation with Voldemort than the officials at the Ministry, and Harry had to admit, more than himself.

Harry left Melrose alone for a full week once again. But during this week, he couldn't stop thinking about her. She had the brave pride of a Viking. She reminded him of Molly Weasley in a sense; in her personality. She had the same strong care for other people. The ability to put others before herself. She was, and Harry couldn't stop thinking this in his brain, absolutely amazing. Ron noticed Harry's change in behavior as well. For Harry had started to daze off and think about Melrose. Harry had done a few assignments for Kingsley during that week. Most of them gathering the last bit of information on left over Death Eaters. All of which Harry did with absolutely no enthusiasm. Finally, Ron sat down with Harry in the auror office. "What's up, mate?"

"Mmm?"

"You're not yourself. You're just…out of it."

"Sorry, Ron, I just-"

"You should go see her." Ron said suddenly, "Melrose."

"Why?" Harry said, "She doesn't want to see me. She wants us to leave her alone."

"You're right. She does want us to leave her alone. But I don't know if she wants you to leave her alone."

And Harry made up his mind to go see Melrose the next day. He had walked into Kingsley's office that morning and informed Kingsley that he wouldn't be able to be in the Ministry that day. Kingsley just smiled and nodded.

It was a Saturday once again, and Harry found himself sitting outside on the same bench he had been for the last three weeks, watching Melrose's apartment building. He tried to look nonchalant and normal, wearing jeans and a sweatshirt and looking official, but he couldn't help but ruffle his hair over and over again.

Finally, after it was about seven, Harry jumped off from the bench and walked up to the building. He opened the door and walked into the little landing on the ground floor, and then Harry realized that he didn't know what apartment Melrose lived in. He turned around and looking at the line of buttons on the wall with the names drawn next to them. Melrose was on ground four.

It didn't take Harry long to get to the fourth floor. He practically jumped up the floors to the landing. He walked briskly to apartment 14, and upon it was a little whiteboard with the words "Melrose" upon it and a smiling face next to that. Ruffling his hair once more time, Harry knocked on the door.

He heard some movements from inside and then the door opened to reveal Melrose. She was dressed in another one of those tight dresses and her hair was done up in a loose bun. She blinked at Harry and then when she realized who he was, she popped her hip out and put her hand on her waist, "Harry…" And her smile was fond.

"Hi.." Harry breathed.

"I wasn't expecting you."

"I wasn't expecting you either."

"Have I done something else illegal?" And she laughed.

Harry laughed as well and motioned to her wardrobe, "You're dressed up again."

"Yeah. Remember Stacy? She asked to go out again." Melrose said, and she laughed, "Not that that's a good idea…"

"Going out? To that club again?"

Melrose nodded, "The same. We're regulars." And she stopped and looked Harry up and down. Her eyes narrowed and Harry could see the corners of her mouth rising, "You're not here on Ministry business, are you?"

"No."

The two didn't speak for a long while. Melrose glanced up at him from where she was looking on the floor, her cheeks flushed already. Harry only stood still in the middle of the doorframe. Melrose knew why he waas there. He didn't need to yell it out. They were both adults. They were already able to read each other. Harry felt the rapport between them.

"I suppose…" Melrose said, while leaning against the doorframe and looking inside her small apartment, "I could go one Saturday night without going to the club…A quiet night in…"

"Everyone needs those."

"With company, of course." Melrose said, looking up at Harry with a smile.

"Everyone needs that too."

Melrose moved to the side to give Harry enough room to enter. The inside of Melrose's apartment was simple and quant, but it had character. It was obviously the apartment of a single woman. Tidy. Girly. And it smelled like Melrose.

"What did you really come here for?" Melrose said, and she was leaning against the door of her apartment, her head gently to the side, watching Harry as he turned around to answer.

Harry walked up to her, in a way that he was only a few inches away from Melrose. He stared at her intently, and placed his hands on either side of the wall of the door, down where her waist was, and leaned down so that their faces were even close, and softly he said, "I've never noticed that your eyes are blue…"

Melrose had placed her hands on his chest, and she smiled, "Most likely because they're always red with anger when I see you." And she started to move Harry's zipper on his sweatshirt up and down absently, but her eyes never left his green ones.

"They're beautiful."

And they're lips met. And that night, more than that met. Harry didn't know what came over him. Falling for someone that was supposed to just be an assignment, for someone he was supposed to be bringing to justice, and he had instead formed feelings for her. Feelings that were hot, spontaneous, and allowed him to once again feel like he was alive. He had forgotten the feeling. The moment while he was laying on the ground of the Forbidden Forest only a year or two before after coming back from limbo, when he felt his heart slam against his ribcage and the blood throughout his entire body coarse through him violently, he felt again while he was with Melrose. She was one of the reasons why he was still alive, and one of the other reasons why he felt so.

* * *

I'm not sure why I update this one faster than the others. Mainly because the Bobbi one takes a bit more time to write in general. But here you are! Thanks for the reviews! I love them! 


	7. Chapter 7

Harry awoke the next morning to some shuffling and sighing. Melrose was getting out of her bed and wrapping a sheet around herself.

It had felt wonderful to have a women in his arms again. Melrose was smooth and curved in all the right places, and from what Harry saw (and he saw everything) there wasn't a blemish to be seen. She was the picture of magical perfection. That night was magical perfection.

Melrose turned around when she heard Harry grunt and she smiled. He smiled back. They didn't say anything because both of them knew they didn't need to. Harry content to just know that she was paying him a look.

"You did what?" Was the second thing Harry woke up to. In the middle of the auror office. With Lupin's screeching and Sirius' snickering.

But Harry couldn't see the problem. Lupin explained, "She's a criminal, Harry."

"She is not! She was protecting-"

"Great. You have sex with her and you take her side." Lupin snipped angerly while turning from his past student and glaring at Sirius, "This isn't funny."

"I think it's great!" Sirius said, patting Harry on the shoulder for the third time that morning, "Take it from a fellow criminal. We appreciate the attention."

"Stop encouraging him!"

Harry watched the two men bicker out of the corner of his eye, but who he was really watching was a couple approaching his own desk. One with bright red hair, and the other with brown bushy hair. "Um..I have to go somewhere."

"What? Where?"

"Kingsley." Harry said quickly, and he turned and started to speed walk away from his two best friends. He only heard the last snippets of conversation, which included, 'He's in a hurry…' and 'Why is he acting so weird?' and sadly, 'You won't believe where Harry's been…'

But now, he had to go see Kingsley.

Lupin had a point, even if Sirius played it off as a joke. Did the wizarding world still consider Melrose a convict?

Kingsley was sitting at his desk in his office when Harry knocked and let himself in. Kingsley didn't even look up, but nodded his acknowledgement and said, "Harry, my boy…"

"Hello sir."

"I hear you had an eventful night last night…"

Harry felt his face go hot, "You mean…You know?"

"Everyone knows." Kingsley said, "Sirius is a proud godfather."

Harry would have to remember to speak to his 'proud' godfather later. For the time being, he needed to just sit down in one of Kingsley's chairs and think about what he's done. He's made love, and sparked a romantic relationship with a convict.

Kingsley seemed to already know what he was thinking, because he said, "You're uneasy about it, aren't you?"

"A little." Harry sighed, "Is she still..dangerous?"

"Not really. I would consider her a hero."

Harry perked up and looked at the Minister, "Really?"

"If it wasn't for her, there wouldn't be a you."

Harry thought deeply about what Kingsley said for the rest of the day. Maybe he didn't have a reason to be ashamed or worried. Maybe it made sense for him to get with the girl that had saved him. Two heros, two lovers, one couple. It all made sense. Ginny was a hero but she hadn't done anything too miraculous. But maybe Harry shouldn't think about that just yet.

"Are you over being ashamed now?" Sirius asked.

"You know." Harry said as he turned around to face his father in the middle of the auror office, "I'd just like to point out that it wasn't needed for you to go around the Ministry and tell everyone."

"What's the problem? Everyone approved! You got with a great girl! You should see how jealous that blond boy is.."

"He's your cousin…" Harry seethed grimly.

"Look, chap." Sirius said, sitting down next to Harry and watching him intently, "I'm not being a devil's advocate…"

"You're always the devil's advocate."

"That's beside the point!" Sirius said, "We're not proud of you for having sex. We're proud of you because you're moving on…"

"Really?" Harry said suddenly, standing up and looking at his godfather. Close by he looked at Ron, who had his nose very deep and very uncharacteristically in a book. "You're happy I'm over Ginny?"

"No mate, we're not!" Ron said, "But..you know. You can be happy now…Everyone has to move on sometime, mate…"

Harry was breathing hard out of anger, but he had enough air inside him to say, "You guys are heartless. And wrong." And he stalked out of the office and left the Ministry.

He had two options. He could go home and be alone with just Sirius and his girlfriend, and again be congratulated on his success, or he could go to Melrose's apartment and pay her a visit. He thought it best to stake out the café a few blocks away from the both of them. Too much attention was on him right now.

It was a 24 hour café with dirt all over the windows and Harry counted sixteen spiders in the corner of the room. This café also included a gray floor that should actually be white, walls that should be blue, or so Harry assumed, and a waitress that was pregnant and smoking. But it was quiet, and away from everyone. And he could think.

He liked Melrose. He really did. Fallen in love with her, even. But what does that mean for Ginny? Poor, old, and forgotten Ginny. He had seen her dead face at the end of the Battle. Her eyes vacant, her cheeks completely white, and her small thin lips parted slightly. It had been the most painful and awful thing he had ever seen. Sure, his parents being dead pained him. But he never really knew his parents; he only had a few pictures of them. But Ginny…Ginny and he had formed a tight romantic bond, and he had known her for as long as Ron and Hermione and the Weasley family; longer than his own godfather and favorite teacher. She was his, a part of him, and she was gone. Her last words that were said to Harry were, "I'll wait for you." right before he left the Room of Requirement to fight Voldemort. And didn't she deserve the same from him?

How long was it okay to wait for? It had been years. People have moved on. Mrs. Weasley stilled cried over her two lost children for the first couple of years, but with the brining of grandchildren, she had moved on as well. Ginny's belongings were put into small boxes with expendable charms on them, put into the closet of the guest room, and forgotten, just like their daughter and sister.

But Harry hadn't forgotten. He still had a moving picture of him and Ginny dancing at Bill's wedding. He still thought about her every day. Almost every moment. Well. Only the moments in which he wasn't thinking about Melrose. Which was becoming more and more frequent.

And would Ginny be okay with this?

He went home late at night when he was sure Sirius was asleep with his girlfriend and crawled into bed. Tired. And alone. He hadn't stopped by Melrose's house. He'd do that tomorrow morning. For the time being, Harry wanted to be alone.

And the next morning his alarm went off and Harry didn't want to move at all. He only wanted to stay in bed for the rest of the day and daydream about what life would be like if it wasn't complicated. Though, Harry thought, it wouldn't be surprising if everything thought about that.

Walking into the auror office, he didn't get the same smiles and jabs in the ribs like he got the previous day. He only got glances, sad looks, and then sighs. Things that indicated to Harry, fairly quickly, that something was amiss, and it involved him.

Rushing to his office chair, he stopped and glanced at Sirius and Lupin, who were both looking at the ground and most certainly not at Harry. "Hey.." Harry tried to sound normal, "What's going on?"

"You need to go see Kingsley." Lupin said quickly.

"Why can't you tell me?"

"It's not easy to tell." Sirius said.

"You told everyone about Melrose and I yesterday." Harry snipped, "You seem to have a knack for telling things that shouldn't be told. So tell me!"

"It's about Melrose and only Kingsley knows everything." Sirius said, "Go talk to him. Now."

Harry gave his godfather a shocked look and then a glare before leaving the office. Looking into the eyes of his coworkers, he knew that they knew something too. Something about Melrose. And it didn't involve sex.

How was it that it only took 24 hours for Harry to be apraised and then pitied? How was it that the mood of an office could shift so dramatically? How was it that something in Harry's life could be completely ruined in the matter of a day? It happened all the time. His parents dying didn't take that long. Him finding out he was a wizard didn't take long either-granted he had to shift through a couple hundred letters and change locations to get the gist of it all-it only took him a full day from the time Hagrid told him of magic for him to be sitting in the Great Hall for the first time. It only took a day to acquire Ron as his best friend. Only took a day to get down to the vault with the Philosopher's Stone and the Chamber of Secrets. Only took one night for him to ignite a long lasting and deep relationship with Sirius. Only took one night, one battle, for him to realize that Volemort was back. Only took a couple of moments to save Arthur's life from Nagini. Only one full day with Dumbledore to lose him. Only one full day of Battle at Hogwarts. And in that day, only a matter of hours for Ginny's death. Things like this, things that help and kill Harry a little bit inside, seem to happen within 24 hours. His life was just snippets of 24 hours; never actual days.

Harry felt his stomach sink into his jeans when he approached the door. Knocking on it softly, it opened, as he knew it would, and he stepped inside. Kingsley glanced up and sighed when he saw Harry standing before him. He placed his pen down on the desk and smiled sadly at Harry before gently motioning him to take a seat in one of the fancier seats that he provides for his visitors. Harry did so. Kingsley didn't speak for a while either; he seemed to be weighing some type of option in his brain. But finally he said, "Tea, Harry?"

"What's happened."

Kingsley pursed his lips and poured himself a cup while he waited for what seemed to be picking the right words. Harry watched him silently. Kingsley finally said, "It's about Melrose."

"I know."

"We didn't monitor her." Kingsley said softly, "We assumed you would do that for us. You know, since you were with her. Dating her, perhaps? Should we call it that?"

"And?"

"Did you visit Melrose last night, by chance?"

"No. I went home. I needed sleep."

Kingsley nodded like he had expected the answer and sighed sadly, looking at one of the pictures of his wife absently. "This is very hard to tell you." He confessed.

"Spit it out, then."

Kingsley gave an impatient look at Harry, but continued, "When a person's memory is wiped, the memory isn't actually gone. It's just pushed back into the very back of their mind and will not return unless there is a trigger." He said, "Like repressing memories, only magical. If the memories are restored, then the person remembers everything. The tricky bit is that when the memories are wiped for the second time, one doesn't actually know how much and which memories they should obliviate. For example, if I'm a mass murderer like Voldemort, and my memories are wiped clean from my mind, these memories could be anything. From something as complex as his entire plot, or something simple, like your mother's eyes. And the second obliviater has absolutely no idea what significance that holds. Only the person with the mind knows in the end."

"So. Rabastan's memories are back. That's it?"

"Well. He restored Melrose's mother's memories once he got the chance." Kingsley said, "Last week, he went home in perfect health. Or so we thought. He was acting, you see. And when he got home and got his wife alone, he used a wand that was stolen from one of the aurors and restored her. They know absolutely everything they knew a decade ago-and they were still in the same mindset as they were then as well."

"…Same mind set?"

"They still wanted you dead." Kingsley said.

"Well." Harry snipped, "Who doesn't?"

"Rabastan overheard Melrose's confession to you. Her story. Of her saving your life." Kingsley carried on, "And for a Dark wizard to find out his daughter betrayed him and ruined his plan and took away his metal life, that would impact him deeply."

"He's after Melrose."

"No." Kingsley's voice got deeper, sadder, "You're in our thoughts, Harry."

"Melrose needs to be in your thoughts."

"Rabastan got Melrose. Last night." Kingsley said, "Went in with Jane to Melrose's apartment. They performed the Killing Curse."

After that, Harry felt numb for months. He took these months off work at the auror office and spent most, if not all, of his time in his room. Sirius tried almost everyday to get him to come out of his room and talk to everyone, but Harry refused. Thinking about Melrose's death made him think about Ginny's death, which made him think about Dumbledore's death, and finally, about his parents' deaths. Was there no one in the world that loved Harry and live to tell the tale?

Harry was asked if he wanted anything of Melrose's once, and he said no. He only knew her for a couple of weeks.

But it made him think about life. About death. Would he ever marry? Would he ever be able to be happy? Or maybe it was easier to just fine a muggle and have a quiet life away from magic. Nothing was complicated before magic.

But he knew he couldn't do that. He knew he couldn't give up one of the most fundamental things in his life for the sake of one woman. However, he could change a few things. Be more careful on who he dated. Who he loved. If he ever loved again.

After months of isolation, Harry went back to work. Ron and Hermione's first child was born, he was deemed the godfather, but he didn't seem to find it all that exciting. Simply saying, "You think I'm going to be alive during his life?"

Harry felt utterly and absolutely alone, just like he did before he even met Melrose. Like he had for majority of his life. Hopefully, and he hoped deeply, someday soon all this waiting and pain would be worth waiting for. But for the time being, he had to bury himself deeper than he ever had into his work and try to carry on.

Harry became Head of Auror office at the age of 27, before 30, just like Kingsley said he would. And he became dedicated, efficient, and deathly isolated and hard. Would he ever find someone? Or was his life cursed to be alone? Only time would tell.

* * *

Are you frustrated that it's a sad ending? It was bound to happen. Thanks for reading!


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